MODIS Analysis of Bonney Coast Upwelling Variability, 2002-2016

Geoscience Australia Data provides a study using MODIS satellite data to map the Bonney Coast upwelling system off southern Australia. The dataset includes more than 170 Sea Surface Temperature and Chlorophyll-a images from July 2002 to December 2016, with a spatial resolution of approximately 1 kilometer. This work was presented at the 2017 Australian Marine Science Association Conference.

Use Cases

• Mapping the spatial extent of seasonal upwelling based on Topographic Position Index (TPI) and image segmentation.
• Analyzing inter-annual variability in upwelling intensity and duration based on monthly SST and Chlorophyll-a signatures.
• Investigating correlations between upwelling events and climate phenomena like ENSO based on the multi-year time series.
• Modeling nutrient enrichment and its impact on marine life aggregations based on Chlorophyll-a concentration data.

Strengths

• Includes more than 170 processed satellite images, providing a substantial time series.
• Covers a 14.5-year period from July 2002 to December 2016, allowing for long-term trend analysis.
• Spatial resolution of approximately 1km enables detailed mapping of the upwelling's surface area, noted to exceed 10,000 km² during intensive events.
• Extracted Chlorophyll-a and SST signatures for upwelling areas provide quantifiable metrics for analysis.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count and exact file sizes are unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• The primary data formats are HTML and PDF, which may require extraction or conversion for computational analysis.

Provenance

Source

Geoscience Australia Data

Collection Method

Analysis of MODIS satellite imagery using Topographic Position Index (TPI) and image segmentation techniques.

Time Range

July 2002 to December 2016

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-25 15:41:10.648770; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Bonney Coast, Australian southern shelves from Cape Jaffa (SA) to Cape Nelson (VIC)